Road to PAX AUS: Day -63

So, big news - for the first time, PPG is going to PAX Aus in a media capacity, looking to cover the show and the games therein!

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to one of these shows - fairly sure the last time was nearly a decade ago - and a lot has changed both in the world and for myself since then.

I’ll be doing things a little differently than your major sites when it comes to covering this event. I’m less interested in the marketing spin and the big headliners. Instead, I want to cover the idea of this type of gathering, what it means and represents, what it’s worth is in a modern context - passed the hype, the glitz and the glam. I will also be doing what I can to boost cool indie games from the show that deserve the attention, showcasing the intriguing ideas that are more likely to miss the headline grabbing spotlight.

Those with the eyes glued to local coverage may have noticed the Indie Showcase Award Winners have been circulating around over the last few weeks. This press release serves a two major functions. 

First and most obvious, it’s a highlight of 10 locally made indie projects across the digital and physical gaming industries. There’s some pretty fantastic looking games in the bunch - Hollow Hero, Copycat and The Drifter being three that definitely pique my specific interest. I think this is reflective of something that’s been true of the Australian gaming scene for a fair while now - that we punch above our weight in making some of the coolest experiences in the space.

“AAA” development studios as they're more commonly referenced - your EA’s, Take Two’s, Rockstars etc - have long been absent since the days of LA Noire and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Thanks to a combination of Australia’s slightly more robust worker protection laws (in an industry that certainly is happy to exploit it’s workers every which way it can) and a libertarian government that devalued the arts in general (completely scrapping funding in 2014 put in place by the previous cabinet) larger studios found it “unsustainable" to continue employing Aussie talent.

However, despite all the headwinds, Aussies persevered. Some of the best early mobile games - Jetpack Joyride, Fruit Ninja, Crossy Road - were local. In the years since, some of the most critically acclaimed, successful and beloved indies - Hollow Knight, Untitled Goose Game, Golf Story, Unpacking - came from extremely talented small Australian teams. There’s even been plenty of smaller breakout hits - Antichamber, the Frog Detective series, the Submerged games. And there’s so many more I haven’t even listed here.

The Aussie games industry has and continues to face challenge after challenge. Despite that, there’s a fire behind the creators of these fantastic experiences, coming up with cool ideas for us to dig our teeth into. Because an anthropomorphic wombat hero could only come from down under.

The second function of this release is to hype up the show and sell tickets by getting the info in front of readers of local news sites. From a press perspective, this is an initial email with copy a media person can pull from / paste into an article to get a piece up easily, then a follow up email if you take a while to get a piece up (if you’ve been reading this site for any length of time, you’ll have realised “timeliness” isn’t really what I do here. External deadlines? No problem. Here? I’ma sit with it and think for a while.)

It’s an important part of any event or any product that sells for money that word needs to get out somehow. I don’t begrudge this marketing process by the show creators at all - it’s an important part of the process of pulling off a successful, fun show that is a win-win for everybody. Yet, I can’t help but shake this weird feeling around being a mouthpiece for another party, feeding you word vomit as it’s been spoon fed into my gullet.

As advertising has become more complex over the years, it has also become more insidious by necessity. The practice is inherently manipulative by nature - you have something (dollars, attention, just general space in your brain) that some other entity wants, and so they try and persuade you to give it to them. Hell, I’m still doing that here - even by writing this incredibly extrapolative piece thanks to a simple press release, I’m asking for you to care about what I am saying, instead of, I don’t know, laying in the sun or petting your dog. 

How do we decide what should and shouldn’t matter to us - or put another way, who decides these things for us? Maybe it’s just the naked disdain the ultra rich and those with the tightest grasp on political power (if those are even separate things) that’s getting in my craw. I’ve been getting uncomfortably personal instagram ads and recently watched season 6 episode 1 of Black Mirror, so maybe it’s just me.

Either way, I’ve spent the last 800 words telling you about PAX Aus’ Indie Showcase Awards press release in a more roundabout way than simply copy-pasting it. That absolves me of any wrongdoing, right?

I’m not sure if the next piece in this series is going to be soon or not for another 60ish days, but feel free to keep an eye on this blog as we go for further dives into PAX Aus. Disclaimer, they may or may not be as introspective/philosophical/existential/wanky as this one, but we’ll see. The only way to know is to read along.